Comments on: Not the cure for AIDS

By: Davd

Davd — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 11:46:38 +0000

With as much as they know about the HIV, I wonder why is there no cure or vaccine for it? I do believe that drug companies don't want cures so that they can continue to make money, but I don't believe that every single person that would know about them doing that would keep quiet quiet while millions of people are suffering and dying from diseases. If I knew, I wouldn't care if they threatened to fire me, I would go public with it.

By: lisa

lisa — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 04:35:36 +0000

We will have a cure in the near future. I know how hard the scientist are working. If you get the HIV virus take you medicines get your hep shots both A and B. If you get it from a boyfriend that was not faithful to you. Remember to be careful and not to get into that situation again and please don't spread it around. You can live a long and healthy life even with the virus. Do not aggrivate the situation by continuing un-safe practices. Remember you will survive and you will pull through. You must have faith in yourself and faith that in your life time we will make a break through and it will happen . We even might be surprised that it might be something very simple that we didn't even think of. What about BMP

By: Lori

Lori — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 23:14:32 +0000

My husband died from complications of a bone marrow transplant. He also had Acute Leukemia (ALL), he did not have AIDS/HIV. To say it is a cure is a hilarious statement. Although my husband died of complications from a transplant, he still really died of ALL. You can put any kind of spin on it you like, but a BMT is NOT the way to 'cure' AIDS. First of all you have to go through all the chemo which can cause cancer later, possible radiation chemo, etc.; then you have a 25% chance of a major organs failing right off the bat from the transplant alone. Then there are the 'side effects'. My husband had Graft VS host disease and then developed all sorts of problems, which eventually led to his death only 6 months after the transplant.

I think it is wonderful that this worked for this guy, but as most of the doctors said, it is good case for research.

Matt, I disagree with your feelings about a cure and society rejecting it if it was there... the doctors we had really did want to see a cure, I know that it is hard for them to see people dieing in their care. They feel frustrated and helpless, just like we do.
thanks for reading.

By: Christopher

Christopher — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 22:42:18 +0000

Matt-

First of all, we need to be clear about something. HIV is a virus, and AIDS is a condition that results from being infected with the virus. If you can't get your terminology correct, you can't have intelligent discussion about the subject.

The point of this article is to serve as the voice of reason. Dr. Gupta isn't being an uber pessimist by posting this, he's telling you what the initial reports should've told you. This is not a cure. I might only be a Ph.D. student researching human retroviruses, but even I could have told you this.

Hope is out there, but it isn't in this case.

By: eddie

eddie — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 07:05:35 +0000

2 QUESTIONS:

1 . Why can't THOSE IN DOUBT just go ahead and clarify the existence of hiv on the man's body using their advanced/sophisticated hiv testing kits and see whether traces of the virus still exist in his body? -and get back to us(instead of the issue lingering on in some seemingly perpetual undetermined state as is presently the case).

2. Why dont we just embrace stem-cell research as the FUTURE and probably the best shot to finding many cures for the many long-term ailments? -diabetes2,hiv/aids,cancer the list is endless ...(since evidently, much -almost everything is been tried "mainstream" without much promise or even success...its like looking for the cure in the wrong place when we have a better shot that is staring at us in the eye- infact! not doing this means we are delaying the cures and yes at our own life-expense).

Concluding...though the issue of "life beginning at conception" remains and abounds(on stem-cell research et all) but even the kids who are now being born will bear the same burden we bear today- question is when will we decide to attack these diseases with all we have...coz at the moment "they" are attacking us with all they have and are ahead at it.

By: cliff

cliff — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:32:54 +0000

Read Jacquelyne Froebers article on Health.com. It clears up some confusion on stem cell bone marrow transplants for HIV.Keep up the research.

By: Nelly

Nelly — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:25:05 +0000

I think this is a great achievement in medicine and with a little additional research disastrous diseases such as AIDS and cancer will be cured.
Nelly

By: Wafik El-Deiry, M.D.

Wafik El-Deiry, M.D. — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:32:07 +0000

I stand corrected. Here is an abstract from 1989 describing the earlier experience of bone marrow transplantation in a patient with lymphoma (Dr. Saral moved to Emory a few years ago and is still there):

Allogenic bone marrow transplantation (BMT) plus azidothymidine (AZT) in an AIDS patient with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL).

Holland HK, Rossi JJ, Donnenberg AD, Zaia JA, Santos GW, Saral R; International Conference on AIDS.

Int Conf AIDS. 1989 Jun 4-9; 5: 405 (abstract no. W.B.P.319).
The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of combined modality therapy (AZT plus allogeneic BMT) on HIV-1 infection in a lymphoma patient with AIDS. METHODS: The patient, a 41 yo HIV-1 culture+ man with NHL, received cyclophosphamide and total body irradiation to ablate tumor, bone marrow and marrow derived cells. AZT (5 mg/kg q 4h) was begun 2 wks prior to BMT. Nine days after initiation of ablative therapy he received 4×10(8) nucleated BM cells/kg from his HLA identical sister. At this time AZT was reduced to 1.3 mg/kg q 4h and maintained at that level for the duration of treatment. HIV-1 was monitored by culture and polymerase chain reaction gene amplification (PCR, LTR and ENV, DNA and reverse transcribed RNA). RESULTS: Despite continuous AZT, engraftment was prompt (17 days to neutrophils greater than 500/mm3). Peripheral blood mononuclear cells and BM samples became HIV-1 negative by culture and PCR 32 days after BMT. The patient died of tumor relapse 47 days after BMT. Complete autopsy showed no evidence of HIV-1 by PCR (brain, BM, spleen, tumor, heart, kidney, liver, lung, colon) or culture (brain, BM, lymph node, tumor). CONCLUSIONS: 1) The patient tolerated intensive therapy associated with BMT 2) Prompt engraftment was attained despite AZT therapy 3) PCR and culture data suggest clearance of host cells harboring virus and prevention of infection of repopulating donor cells.

By: Chasity- St. Louis, MO

Chasity- St. Louis, MO — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 17:38:38 +0000

I am not sure if this is a "cure" but I do believe that they should test this theory out on another willing HIV patient. I think that automatically claiming that it is NOT a cure is not fair to those who so desperately want a cure. But, we all have to remember, the money is not in the cure...it is in the disease. If doctors cured HIV, they millions of dollars that they make off of treatments and medications would go down.

By: matt (Nov 14)

matt (Nov 14) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 01:37:55 +0000

In response first off, I completely agree with the notion that this either "treatment" or cure, whatever one cares to argue for, is by no means the final verdict. Neither the article nor I suggested that. On the contrary the article explains that this cannot be applied universally and I accept that as fact
This finding isn't the answer for everyone. But it better be the start of a serious consideration on how to go about discovering the "final verdict" on HIV/AIDS. I believe the path to a cure may have been the major discovery here. I dare the medical community to set a goal for investigating and perfecting this path in the near future, not the upcoming decades. Be it Stem Cell Research or some other means of introducing this “new immune system” giving our body the knowledge on fighting AIDS with its own immune system and using this rare genetic key, perhaps through a cloning mechanism or by engineering ones own cells, this is what we need to investigate. I for one don’t understand the linguistics of these processes, as I am not a doctor.
In a final conclusion I have this to say about the article. I agree with the notion that AIDS is by no means a mystery solved, or an ailment of the past. I disagree that this "cure" is not applicable for anyone, obviously the patent who is living today can attest to that. . Certainly he can argue that this finding must have some immediate use for others in the stage of experimental therapies, perhaps others with both Leukemia and HIV/AIDS and without the promise of a long future of antiviral drugs; may for those in the more desperate stages of AIDS. These people certainly can argue that this is a fair chance on extending their life, regardless of the risk. Where is the ethics in telling these people: “This is interesting but not a practical application. It’s not feasible..."
You cannot ignore the fact that it was indeed a cure (thus far) for one man, and possible hundreds if not thousands of others. A man took an experimental treatment in order to live, and he won, an astonishing victory for the world. This is the message the article needed to convey, but instead mitigated any progress made. I cannot end this comment without saying to all who are in a position in the medical field to make a impact on this finding, DO NOT DISMISS IT, IMPROVE IT. We cannot dwell on pessimism surely the light bulb wasn't perfect when it first lit up a room, and that was after hundreds of trials; further more at that time most homes didn't even have electricity; but we don't use candles today, and we will not be using inconstant bulbs tomorrow. Please in further posts argue not what I wrote but that point, where do we go from here after this historic turning point in the fight for that final verdict, the cure EVERYONE has hoped for, the death of AIDS domestically and abroad.